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Monday, January 16, 2017

This inn was originally
called the “Wolf Creek Tavern” when it opened in the 1880s. It is the oldest
continuously operated inn in the Pacific Northwest.

In its heyday, it serviced
weary travelers that made the 16-day journey north from San Francisco to
Portland, Oregon.

Jack London is said to have finished
his story Valley of the Moon while
staying at Wolf Creek in the summer of 1911. He is one of the spirits that have
been seen and heard in the inn since his death in 1916.

In later years, Mary Pickford
and Douglas Fairbanks stayed at Wolf Creek. Clark Gable, his wife Carol Lombard
and Orson Wells also stayed at the inn. John Wayne rented a room while he
filmed Rooster Cogburn

The inn today has a variety
of spirits that still make appearances. One favorite ghost story is about a
stagecoach driver named, One-Eyed Charlie Parkhurst. During the Gold Rush years
Charlie was known to be one of the toughest drivers along the northern route.

Stagecoach Drivers

Quotes about Charlie include:
“He drove his team hard, cussed up a storm and spat tobacco juice harder than
anyone else.”

Charlie had a reputation for
never missing a day’s work—except the day after payday when he was too hung
over to drive.

In 1868, Charlie registered
to vote, he told friends so he could vote for Ulysses S. Grant.

When Charlie Parkhurst died
at the age of 67, the mortician that tended his body was in for a shock. Charlie
was actually “Charlotte” an orphan girl who escaped her life by hiding as a
man.

When Charlie voted in the
1868 presidential election some believe she was the first woman in the U.S to
cast a vote.

For years, people who have
visited Wolf Creek claim to have seen the ghost of a rough dressed man on the
main floor at the inn. This ghost’s voice has been picked up on EVPs. Many
believe this is One-Eyed Charlie.

But the facts point to
another conclusion. Charlie died four years before the Wolf Creek Tavern
opened. So it is unlikely her ghost is the one seen. But this story was too
good to pass up.This inn is owned by the
state of Oregon and is on the National Register of Historic Places.